At the weekend we bought Harry the Cheese Chase toy from P@H, which he absolutely loves (thanks Buffie for the recommendation!).

A few times in the first play session he crouched down and made a 'huff, huff, huff' breathing sound - like an exaggerated version of when he sniffs something - then carried on batting the ball around like a nutter. He didn't seem out of breath or in any kind of distress and I'm sure I've occasionally heard him make the same noise when watching birds through the window.

I had a look online and found a few references to this 'huffing'. All seemed to say it's normal and due to excitement during play. If he appeared unwell in any way we'd of course call the vet, but he seems absolutely fine. Does anyone else's cat do it?

Monty does it it mainly when they are chasing each other round the house and when he's playing with da bird, I had never heard a cat do it before but he only does it when playing so glad to know it's normal I just thought it may be another of his odd quirks

Our Mia snorts and pants while playing with our homemade version of da bird. I'm sure there's some huffing in there too! But her noises usually appear when she's flying through the air after the feathers, rather than on the ground. Her little nose goes all pink too with the exertion!

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This does sound normal and is very cute.

My little girl cat Izzy huffs, snorts and gets quite puffed out with da bird, her little feet go pink too. I have to be careful not to wear her out as she will just run & jump until she is exhausted. She also chatters at birds and other cats through the window.

My boycat is considerably lazier though, he rarely goes so far as to get tired, we are FAR too grown up to make an exhibition of ourselves now! He happily watches Izzy careering around though with a rather smug expression.

Ah I'm so glad! William does the same thing when playing, this 'huffing' noise you speak of, with an occasional snort thrown in! My OH finds it very cute while I found it mildly worrying. He mainly does it when we're playing with 'mousie' (it's a furry mouse on a bungee string which he absolutely loves. I've been through a few of them since we got him, but can't seem to find another toy he likes as much!)
Glad to know that it's normal!
Sparkles
xx

Never heard Sweetie do this but that's probably because she has me running around so much, my wheezing is too loud to hear anything

We have one cat who huffs really loudly when he's worked up. It's completely adorable, but it is rather a weird noise. We have a second cat who's mute, and the third makes up for that by whistling, chirruping, grunting, 'oofing' and hooting. It sounds like a zoo here sometimes...